Whole house audio with only a HTPC?

[politics123]

Yes, I'm a lurking newbie, but I've been researching for quite a while.

I just finished building a new house, prewiring it for whole-house audio (either through home-run speakers or an ABUS/cat5 distribution model).

I've looked at Nuvo, Russound, Niles, Zones, etc. What I'd like to know is: is there a way to distribute whole-house audio without the multi-zone amp and controller.

Is there a multi-output sound-card or software that allows one PC to power multiple zones?


Michael

 

[DavidL]

Yes, now there is.

www.cinemaronline.com/servers.html
and
www.cinemaronline.com/hardware.ampsolutions.html
controlled by
www.cinemaronline.com/musiclobby.html

 

[bfisher]

Another option is to use a sound card with multiple outputs. I (and several others here) use M-Audio Delta 410. It can drive 4 unique zones effectively.

Remember though, this is line level out - you still need to power it with amps. I (and several others here) have purchased low cost stereo amps. This works quite well and creates a very flexible zoned system. I use my HVPro to manage everything.

If you follow my link (in my signature), it will take you to my "cocoon". Scroll down a bit and I cover how I handle multizone audio. Sorry - it's a bit dated, but still essentially true (basics are all there, but I've added touchscreens to control, etc.)

 

[DavidL]

bfisher, the MusicLobby solution is just that. The AMP152 hardware is an amplifier to take line level (sound card) output and amplify it to speaker level output. You cna use the M-Audio Delta with this setup as well (or the 10/10 for 5 zones).

 

[IVB]

Interesting concept DavidL - using the PC's power supply to power an amp? I haven't heard of that before.

politics: If you're interested in keeping it cheap and getting more power, back when I first started out I just used a $200 5yr old 6ch 75wpc Rotel amp off eBay with the line level out plugged into that. You could go even cheaper, but given that I scored that Rotel cheap I was cool.

You could get JRMC, the M-Audio Delta 410, and a cheap amp and be done with it.

 

[MBrew]

Yes, now there is.

www.cinemaronline.com/servers.html
and
www.cinemaronline.com/hardware.ampsolutions.html
controlled by
www.cinemaronline.com/musiclobby.html

I've been expecting t type amps for PC's for quite awhile. I'm a little surprised that MainLobby is the first to offer them,. It looks like y'all have come up with a couple of interesting pieces of hardware lately.

Any chance of seeing more than 1 zone per card? Got any more surprises in store?

Take Care,
Mike

 

[roussell]

Have a look at XLobby. It's free, powerful, and more than capable of running multiple zones of audio in your house. Search the forums there and you'll run across a driver that many use to get multiple independent channels of audio from a single 5.1 or 7.1 creative sound card. You'll also find posts where people have been using a low cost ($20-$30 if memory serves) 6 channel amp from eBay

Terry

 

[bfisher]

Interesting DavidL, I hadn't seen that before. I guess I'd have to hear it to believe it Nice to know it's there though - it's a good solution for some situations I'm sure.

 

[Mike C]

I have had good success with the m-Audio hardware. I use this with J River Media Center for 4 Zone output into a Russound distribution system. Combined with NetRemote, I have complete multizone control of audio throughout our house.

 

[DavidL]

Mike,
always more suprises in store

 

[politics123]

Thanks all for the recommendations. That card certainly looks interesting.

I can see the one-source, multi-zone solution, and even a multi-source, multi-zone solution (when splitting/crosswiring cheap external amps).

But what about the HTPC driving multi-source/multi-zone?

 

[IVB]

Thanks all for the recommendations. That card certainly looks interesting.

I can see the one-source, multi-zone solution, and even a multi-source, multi-zone solution (when splitting/crosswiring cheap external amps).

But what about the HTPC driving multi-source/multi-zone?

directly powering speakers without an external amp?

how many speakers? I'd be concerned that I'd fry the pc power supply, and taking out memory or hard disks in the process.

 

[mdesmarais]

Thanks all for the recommendations. That card certainly looks interesting.

I can see the one-source, multi-zone solution, and even a multi-source, multi-zone solution (when splitting/crosswiring cheap external amps).

But what about the HTPC driving multi-source/multi-zone?

Not sure which card you are talking about. . .

I am in the process of setting up multi-source/multi-zone using a single PC and m-audio cards, running winamp, and controlling it with HouseBot.

Winamp sees the m-audio as 4 separate soundcards- so I can run multiple instances of winamp, each one driving a different soundcard.

Each pair of outputs of the m-audio goes to a separate amp which drives a single zone.

So I am doing multi-source and multi-zone, as long a multi-source is defined as "audio that is available to played by winamp"--- ripped stuff, internet streams, etc.

Each m-audio (I'm running two) also has an input pair that can be routed out. I haven't played with it yet, but I expect that I can put it out more than one soundcard pair at a time. If so, I may use it for a tuner input, or for intercom/announcement functions.

 

[politics123]

Sorry, I should have been more specific. Streams + ripped music are cool, but I also wanted to distribute Sirius (and maybe, much less importantly, AM/FM/WeatherRadio).

Sirius does support streaming... but that might get the sound to one pair of speakers, not in multiples.